I'm Back...for a Little Bit

Boy, I have been MIA for a long time!!  I hope to do better in the future but sometimes I just don't have any thing to write about!  This is a recent picture of Josie Sue, my first great grandchild. She was here last weekend to visit and she is growing like a weed. And she is getting cuter by the month, according to my prejudice thinking..Since I last talked to you, I have added another great grandchild to look forward too, now there are 3 more coming in 2016. I made Josie a quilt so I am trying to find some more easy patterns to get started on the next three baby quilts..these babies are just coming too fast and furious. Here are a few pictures of the quilt and Josie. She was baptized in her mom's bapti
smal dress, hand crocheted, it is beautiful!!

This was an easy and fun quilt to make, it has Minky on the back of it..Sew until next time, have a Stitches kind of day!! 

More Quilt Festival, Trenton, FL.

 Warning, this is a lenghty post with slideshows and pictures!!!  This was the 5th Annual Festival held in Trenton, FL. and I understood that it is held the 2nd Saturday in March each year. If you are ever anywhere in the area and love quilts, crafts, antiques, food and etc., you should be there on that day. I loved it!! Can you tell?? The featured quilter for the day was Madalyn Jones. She quilted over 300 quilts in her livetime, wow!! And she lived 1/2 mile from where she was born, all her life not far from Trenton. I have made a slideshow of some of her quilts.

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I hope you enjoyed the quilts made by Madalyn Jones. I loved the story about making the quilt for the Dr.'s wife and getting a set of dentures..Her quilting was beautiful. I talked to several of her granddaughters and daughters and they all commented about getting to see so many of her quilts all in one place, it was so inspiring for them. The next pictures are of a quilt made by the Possum Crick Quilters from Gainsville, Fl. It is the second one they made in the 1980's as the first one was stolen. It was cut right out of the frame, can you imagine?? It was really cute and Madalyn was one of the maker's on this one too.

The next slide show is just the rest of the town with quilts hanging and the Suwannee Valley Quilt Shop. Wonderful quilt shop and if you are ever within "striking" distance and don't stop, that's sad, really sad! It is a "full" service shop with over 6,000 bolts and more books, notions, patterns and much, much more, than you can even imagine.

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Trenton, FL. Annual Quilt Festival, Fun!!!

Well, my one or two days turned into about 12 but 1 and 2 make 12, right? I'm back to tell you  and show you pictures about the Quilt Festival in Trenton, Fl. It was a great day and we saw so many quilts, that it made our eyes pop!! They had a quilt turning with antique quilts and a speaker that  "sorta" told the audience what era or year she thought the quilt was made. It was held in an old restored train depot and they had quilts hanging all around the walls, just flapping in the breeze. Here's a slide show with the quilt turning quilts.

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That's all for today but I will be back with more of the Festival. The Featured Quilter and more quilts to see. Sew until next time, have a Stitches kind of day...see ya soon.

A PHD Challenge Done!

I can't even remember when I started this quilt, it's been that long ago. Years ago, I had a Secret Sister and I hand appliqued a block for her and one for me every month for a year. When it was time to reveal my Secret Sister, I used my finished quilt top for show and tell and that's how she knew I was her SS.  It layed around my house for a while long time and then I took it to a machine quilter. She and another friend talked me out of having it machine quilted and thought I should hand quilt it because of the hand applique. So I brought it home and it layed around for a long long long time again until finally one day, I decided I was going to take it again to be machine quilted. I was sick of it laying around and thought DONE is better than NOT! I had the border and sashing MQ and I hand quilted the blocks themselves. I guess it was sort of a compromise on the quilting. I entered it into Myra's PHD Challenge last year and it's late in getting finished but it is DONE and I am GLAD!!! The pattern is in an old Piecemaker's quilt book and it called "Heart's A Plenty" and it is a calendar quilt as the blocks represent the 12 months of the year. I hope you like seeing it, sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day.

Souxland Sampler's Quilt Show 2011

I went to the Siouxland Sampler's Quilt Show on September 17, in Sioux City, IA and took a "few" pictures. Here they are if you want to look at some of their great quilts.

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Isn't fall all about tons of quilt shows in your area?? I've been to several and there are more to go to. I guess us quilter's never get tired of looking at quilts, the workmanship, patterns and colors that other quilter's pick out. It's a great time!! Enjoy the pic's, sew until next time, have a 'Stitches' kind of day!!

Cottonwood Guild Meeting and Kathy Kansier

Back on September 20th, I went to the Cottonwood quilt guild meeting and enjoyed the program by Kathy Kansier from Ozark, Missouri. She was a very delightful person and had a wonderful sense of humor and many wonderful quilts to show us. Her program was entitled "Quilts with Great Edges". Most of them were antique quilts, mostly hand quilted and some hand pieced. Very pretty and I loved the old soft feel of them. Here are a few pictures of her quilts. I love this fan quilt and the border, it was so neat.

Another fan quilt, another edge treatment.

And yet another Fan quilt.                                                                                                                                                                             If you look closely at this pink and white border, the "scallops" are hearts.

Large scallops

This was a nice quilt but the prairie points were large and floppy. There are spider webs quilted between the blocks and I think the flowers are Daffodils.

This looks like a difficult border treatment to do.

This is a large Yo-Yo quilt but what was so unusual about it? It was completely appliqued onto a background fabric..It was really gorgeous!!  I have more to tell you about that trip, we found some bargain's at an "Outlet Store" or I like to call it a Flea Market. I hope to be back soon, I've so much more to tell..Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day..

I'll Try to Catch Up Soon!

The last couple of weeks have been on the busy side for me. I have been to the Siouxland Quilt Show, 2 guild meetings and the Jo Morton Retreat in Nebraska and tomorrow I'm going to the AQS show in Des Moines.  The above picture is a quilt made by Katy from the Piecemaker's quilt guild, I think it is so cute!! Lucky little nephew!  I hope to get some posting done on all of these, maybe even today so stay tuned..Sew in the mean time, have a "Stitches" kind of day..see ya soon

9/11 Not Forgotten

I watched most of the specials on TV on 9/11 and thought they were done with reverence. The new memorial looks wonderful and something we can be proud of for years to come and I hope that it will bring peace to the memories of all who were lost. I made a wall-hanging for my son in the month after 9/11 and want to show it to you now. My son is an Omaha Firefighter and I just knew when I saw this free pattern on the internet that I had to make it for him. It still hangs in their living room today, it's getting a little faded around the edges but still instills patriotism in those who see it. I hope you like it.  Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day.

Harrison County Fair Quilt Turning - 2011

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Well, hurray for me!!!! I have been working on this slideshow of our Quilt Turning for about 4 days!! You have no idea how frustrated I am. I could get the Smilebox loaded but when I previewed it, it would not play. So finally I posted it for real and it PLAYED!!! I guess it just won't play in the preview, anyway it didn't for me...I'm hoping you all know about Quilt Turnings? It is a great way to have a "sit down" quilt show. Anyone can bring a quilt to show on the day of the turning and they are taken home with them the same day too. No sorting or hanging of quilts for a show.  The quilts are placed one on top of another on a faux bed, and then they are shown one at a time. We had each owner write a little story about their quilt, who made it, who owns it, the name of the pattern, antique or not and etc. Then we have someone read each story as the quilts are being held up for the ooh's and aah's. There were some interesting stories connected with these quilts and I wish I had them to share some with you. I hope you enjoy the slide show because it took a lot out of me and now I think I'm going to make myself a little Peachie whilst I cook myself a chicken breast...what's a Peachie, you ask?  If you want to know, you only have to ask!!! Sew until next time, have a Stitches kind of evening...

Let Me Introduce, My Friend Diana & Her Pattern Company

Today I am blogging about my personal friend, Diana.  She has a pattern company and she has developed some really neat patterns. Her patterns are simple but look difficult and on most of them she has several sizes, from which to chose. Her directions are written very clear and easy to follow. The pattern that I have shown is Emma's Star Quilt pattern, and I think it is so bright and cheerful and she has directions for 4 different sizes. The best part is that most of her patterns have an e-download so you can get the pattern and start sewing today!! You can't beat that plus, for a limited time, she is offering free shipping on a hard copy of her patterns.  Her website is http://www.pleasantvalleycreations.com/ and I know you will be pleased if you check it out. Not only does she have great patterns but Diana is an awesome long-arm quilter. She has posted a lot of her machine quilted quilts on Webshots and that link is under her Machine Quilting Services on her website. I guess from my descriptions that you know, I think Diana is a remarkable person to do what she does and do it so well. I hope you will take the time to look at her site and see for yourself..Sew, my wish for you and myself, is to have a "Stitches" kind of day...until next time.

Nothing to Brag About!

I truly have nothing to brag about, last week I made a big deal out of starting the Civil War block of the week by Barbara Brackman.  It's really no big deal on my part, I got a whole sum of ONE block done, whoopee!!  I guess life and other things have gotten in the way a little. And then there are simply a few times that I just had to sit and rest and not do a darn thing.  I don't like those moments very well really, as I don't like to waste my time but my 70+ body just says "it's time to rest". Okay then, I believe it. After the hail storm, it's been one thing after another. Talking to adjuster's, roof and siding "experts", and trying to decide what to do. My yard is a mess with tons of sticks and I'm trying still trying to clean up the fall/winter debris too. The spring flowers are coming up through the leaves and old flower parts and need to come off..I've been trying to work a few hours every day on that. And now I have 3 quilts to bind, one is the T-shirt quilt that Granddaughter Abby and I worked on together, another the one I am making her for graduation and the other is one  to finish for the PhD Challenge. Well, I have put in my 2 1/2 hours in the yard today so I'm headed for the shower and then will get some binding sewn on one of the quilts so I can sew it on tonight while watching TV. GD Abby is really anxious for me to get her T-shirt quilt done so she can show it off. I will post it as soon as I can so you can see it.  It came out very nice. The block in this post is the first Civil War block that I have made, I know it is going to take sometime for me to catch up but if there is a will, there is a way...and I hope to find the will and the way very soon.

Catch Me If You Can

Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day...

Here's to a Lovely Day!

   We have had  unbelievable weather this week for February in Iowa. It even got up to 68 on Wednesday. A week ago the yard was covered in several inches of snow and now it's all gone and we can see the brown/green grass. I looked yesterday and my Surprise or Mystery Lilies are up about 1 1/2"..they don't know about March yet!!  Yesterday morning a friend asked if I wanted to go to Omaha with her to return some things and I debated. It was going to be so nice, should I stay home or should I go because it was so nice? Yeah, you guessed it, I went. After her errand, we went to Trader Joe's. It is a fairly new store in Omaha and I hadn't been there yet. The first thing I saw was beautiful flowers. I procrasinated for only a few  minutes and bought a pretty bouquet of little pink roses, blue statice and some little pink lilies for only $3.99! I don't think you can see the lilies but they are there. The big red rose was a freebie. I thought they were really, really nice but when I got to the check-out, the gal said "I'm not going to charge you for the flowers". And I asked, why? She said she thought they didn't look very good and I'm thinking, do I need my glasses changed? I thought they were lovely and brought them home and you can see for yourself. Oh well, I didn't argue with her about the price of them and I am really enjoying them. The little pink roses even have a very nice smell to them. Love, love, love fresh flowers in the house..then we made a stop at Hobby Lobby. A lot of their beads were on sale for 1/2 price and I thought I needed some for a project. (Phyllis, don't roll your eyes at me!)  Below  is a picture of my next quilt. Not very impressive, is it? Well, I hope the next time you see it, it will be more than a pile of strips and yardage. I have to get this pieced and ready to machine quilt as it will be a graduation gift in May. I gotta get goin'.  I have put my Phd"s on the back burner until this pile looks like something that resembles a quilt top.

I wanted to show you a picture of a quilt that my sister, Deb, made for a friend's Valentine birthday. I think it came out really nice and I'm sure the friend loves it. I have never done anything with the crocheted doilies but it would be fun to do sometime. Another one for my bucket list!

Well, until next time, I hope you are having a "Stitches" kind of day. That's my kind of day........